ess than six months after a tragic bicycle accident claimed the life of Tim Vollmann, .a leading Indian law practitioner and scholar and a longtime friend of the University of New Mexico School of Law, a scholarship fund has been established in his memory.

Tim Vollmann Endowment Honors Legacy L

Jo Vollmann, Tim’s widow, and their son, Bryan Rowland, are leading the fundraising effort for the Tim A. Vollmann Justice Scholarship Endowment, which will support schol- arships for second-year UNM law students enrolled in Indian Law courses who have demonstrated a commitment to secure fairness and justice for Native Americans through Indian law, and who have demonstrated a respect for the culture of indigenous people.

Learning the ropes at the UNM Law Library. T

Summer Program Attracts Native American Undergrads

wenty Native American undergraduate students from across the country spent the month of June

at the University of New Mexico School of Law, where they learned many aspects about the legal profession as part of the Native American Pre-law Undergraduate Scholars Program (NA-PLUS), sponsored by the LSAC DiscoverLaw.org. PLUS Program.

The students, primarily in their first or second year of college, were enrolled in three courses that focused on writing, critical thinking and analysis of federal Indian law and other current Native American legal issues. The students also learned about the law school admis- sions process and receiving career advisement in plan- ning an education path that would lead to law school.

During their time in Albuquerque, they also visited tribal, state and federal courts, along with Albuquerque law firms that focus on Indian law, and they were men- tored by Native American lawyers and law students.

The program debuted last summer at the UNM law school, which was joined by the American Indian Law Center (AILC) in putting it on. The law school and the AILC have a long tradition in preparing Native Amer- ican students for a career in the law. For the past 41 years, they have collaborated on the Pre-law Summer Institute, a program for Native Americans entering law school. The NA-PLUS program reaches a younger co- hort of students.

“This program adds a new dimension to a long-run- ning and very successful existing program,” said Dean Kevin Washburn. “It helps to increase the pipeline for American Indians to law school.”

Montana v. United States Decision Thirty years to the day after Montana v. United States was decided by the U.S. Supreme Court, judges, tribal leaders, law professors, lawyers and students gathered in Albu- querque to reflect on the impact of that decision. The day-and-a-half gathering was or- ganized by Indian law faculty at the University of New Mexico School of Law.

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Vollmann had been a beloved adjunct professor since 2004 and was teaching the 2010 fall se- mester’s Indian Water Law class when he died on his commute home in early December. Pre- viously, he had spent 26 years with the Solici- tor’s Office of the U.S. Department of Interior, during which time he authored important pieces of legislation, including the Indian Min- eral Development Act of 1982 and the Jicarilla Apache Water Rights Settlement Act of 1992.

For more information on how to contribute to the Vollmann scholarship endowment, contact Hannah Farrington, assistant dean for ad- vancement, at farrington@law.unm.edu or 505.277.1038.